Looking for any descendants of my great-great grandfather Thomas(?) Gray, born in Sligo November 16, 1834. His son, Thomas Gray sailed from Cobh to Boston in approximately 1903. Thomas met my great-grandmother, Catherine (Gray) Gray, on the voyage, and they were married soon after arriving in the States.
I am attaching a scan of a letter written by my great-great grandfather to the family in the US. The letter is dated June 9, 1925, and at the top near the date, there appears to maybe be the name of a place or a civil parish. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to decipher it. The letter also contains several more clues, including the names of neighbors, etc.
Would love to find more descendants, and determine if any of the family is still in Ireland. I travel there once per year, and have many friends and contacts, but so far have not tried to locate the old family homestead. My mother's paternal side is from Kilshenane in Kerry, (Kennedy and Barry) so it's been a bit easier to run down the information. Thanks a million in advance for any assistance.
Lisa Fortin Jackson
Dallas, Texas
Monday 2nd Dec 2013, 02:43AM
Message Board Replies
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Hi Lisa
There are 2 records of baptisms of Gray in Sligo 1834: John and Mary on www.rootsireland.ie/
Closest match for Thomas is 1836 but the name is spelt Grey; however there were spelling and transcription inaccuracies that could account for that.
You need to purchase credit to view the full record on rootsireland but the parents' names SHOULD be on them (some are not) and the parish will be. If you get the parents' names you can search for other children born to those parents and work forward - the records go to 1920
The Tithe Applotments (free) 1823-37 have 47 Grays in Sligo
Griffiths Valuation 1848-64 (free) have 69 Grays in Sligo
The Irish censuses (free) have 117 Grays in Sligo in 1901 & 112 in 1911
The Irish phone book is also avaiable free online; it has 10 Grays in Sligo so if you don't get a rresponse from the site you might like to write to them to see if anyone has a connection or any kkkknowledge.
Col
ColCaff, IrelandXO Volunteer ☘
Monday 2nd Dec 2013, 04:42AM -
Lisa,
The letter you refer to with the mystery address is not attached to your post. Do you wnat to try again with that?
Elwyn
Ahoghill Antrim
Monday 2nd Dec 2013, 07:56AM -
Col,
It could very well be John. I was never sure about Thomas, hence the question mark. I was aiming for 1834, because the letter he wrote in June of 1929 states that he will be 92 on his next birthday, which was November 16, 1929, and that he was the oldest man in the town at the time. Of course, it was probably fairly common for people to not know exactly when they were born back then. I had attempted to attach the letter to my original post, but it seems that at 1.2mb, it exceeds the maximum upload size for documents. If anyone would care to share their email address, I'd be happy to email it to them to see if they could elicit any clues from it.
Thanks a million for all of the great information.
Lisa
Tuesday 3rd Dec 2013, 04:28AM -
Elwyn,
Thank you, I did try again, and this time I received a message that the letter exceeded the maximum upload file size. The letter is 1.2 MB, and there is apparently a 1.0 MB limit. If you'd care to email me at lfortinjackson@aol.com, I'd be happy to forward the scan of the letter to you if you think you might be able to help. There's a part of me that thinks that if someone familiar with the area could have a look at it, then they might be able to identify the township, or cross reference it with some of the names of the neighbors that he mentions in the letter (ie. Paddy Scanlon being one. Guessing there were probably a hundred Paddy Scanlons in Sligo at that time.)
Thank you so much for your interest,
Lisa
Tuesday 3rd Dec 2013, 04:34AM